Sussex companies fined after 700 lorry loads of illegal waste dumped

A district judge called the behaviour “reckless,” handing down fines totalling £38,000 to the firms dumping waste and the owner of the course who let it happen on its land.

An anonymous tip-off led the Environment Agency to the discovery of almost 700 lorry loads of waste dumped illegally by Crawley haulier Cook and Son and Bell and Sons Construction, of Faygate at Rusper Golf Club in Newdigate, near Dorking.

Investigators went to the scene at the golf course (Image: Environment Agency)

Rusper Leisure, based in Worthing, had planning permission to raise part of an embankment on the driving range by two metres to catch stray golf balls. But the agreement with Mole Valley District Council was to only use clean soil.

Investigators from the Environment Agency found the surface of the mound contained glass, wood, plastic, tarmac, brick, concrete and other materials. Similar loads were also dropped around the course and nearby.     

Cook and Bell paid Rusper Leisure £100 a load for the tonnes of waste left on and around the greens in the second half of 2018.

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The investigation also discovered waste used to create more embankments and stockpiled close to woods on the edge of the golf course and in the club’s car park. Builders’ waste was mixed in with some of the soil.

Waste piled high (Image: Environment Agency)

Jamie Hamilton, the senior environmental crime officer who led the investigation for the Environment Agency, said: “Companies must ensure the Environment Agency authorises any tipping of waste in advance.

“Cook and Son and Bell and Sons, both established operators, discarded the waste over five months.”

When interviewed, Rusper Leisure’s company secretary, Sara Blunden, told investigators she didn’t know the work needed a permit from the Environment Agency, claiming she believed planning permission from Mole Valley was enough to bring waste onto the golf course.

Duncan Bell, a director with Bell and Sons, told the Environment Agency he didn’t check if an environmental permit was needed for the work when told planning permission was in place for raising the bund. Nor did he check where his company’s lorries were dumping the waste.

Christopher Cook, of Cook and Son, admitted his drivers left waste on the course and that he’d taken no further steps to find out if the site had a permit from the Environment Agency, beyond asking Bell if the site was legal for that purpose – it wasn’t.

District Judge Tessa Szagun fined Rusper Leisure, of Yeoman Way, in Worthing, £2,000 for running a waste operation at the golf club with no environmental permit. Costs were £3,000.

For dumping banned waste, Cook and Son, of Rowley Farm, Lowfield Heath, in Crawley, was fined £24,000, with costs of £12,500.

Bell and Sons Construction, of Wimlands Farm, Faygate, was fined £12,000. Costs were £8,000. All three were given victim surcharge fees of £170.   

All charges related to the period June 1 to November 29, 2018. The three companies were convicted at Brighton Magistrates’ Court on May 20 having pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing.

Rusper Golf Club, which was opened by Ryder Cup captain and Open champion Tony Jacklin in 1992, has since closed.